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PROCEEDINGS 
AT  THE 


O^^ening  of  the 

Seattle  Puhnc  Lihrary 

Building 


DECEMBER  19 
1906 


IK 


THE    GIFT    OF 
ANDREW   CARNEGIE 


^Ea-I^v 


THE 


UNIVERSITY 

OF. 


The  Ivy  Press 
1907 


UP.T,hRY 
SCHOOL 


LIBRARY    BOARD. 


J.  A.  Stratton,  Chairman Term  expires  Apri 

Charles   E.   Shepard,    Vice-Chairman    .     .  Term  expires  Apri 

Rev.  W.  a.  Major Term  expires  Apri 

James  H.  Lyons,  M.  D, Term  expires  Apri 

Sidney   S.    Elder Term  expires  Apri 

Rev.  J.  P.  D.  Llwyd Term  expires  Apri 

G.  A.  C.  Rochester Term  expires  Apri 

Chas.  Wesley  Smith,  Secretary. 


1910 
1913 
1907 
1908 
1909 
1911 
1912 


STANDING    COMMITTEES. 

Administration Messrs.  Rochester,  Elder,  Shepard 

Art  Caller})  and  Museum Messrs.  Major,  Lyons,  Llwyd 

Bool^s  and  Periodicals Messrs.  Shepard,  Llwyd,  Lyons 

Branches  and  Deliver})  Stations   .   Messrs.  Elder,  Rochester,  Major 

Buildings  and  Grounds Messrs,  Llwyd,  Major,  Shepard 

Finance Messrs.  Lyons,  Elder,  Rochester 

The  Chairman  of  the  Board  is  ex  officio  a  member  of  all  committees. 


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Prefatory  j\.ote 


On  January  1,  1901,  the  building  occupied  by  the 
pubHc  Hbrary  of  the  City  of  Seattle  was  consumed  by 
fire,  and  with  it  most  of  the  library.  Within  one  week, 
Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie,  upon  representations  of  leading 
citizens  and  officials  of  the  city's  need  of  a  library  build- 
ing and  of  its  ability  to  provide  a  site  and  an  annual 
maintenance  fund  of  $50,000,  offered  to  give  to  it  for 
such  purpose  $200,000.  This  offer  was  promptly  ac- 
cepted, and  the  gift  was  later  increased  by  $20,000  for 
furniture  and  fixtures.  The  site — a  city  block  256  by 
240  feet— was  bought  for  $100,000  in  1902.  The  archi- 
tect, Mr.  P.  J.  Weber  of  Chicago,  was  selected,  after 
personal  investigation  of  most  of  the  library  buildings  in 
the  United  States  by  the  librarian  and  one  of  the  trustees, 
and  after  an  architectural  competition  conducted  under 
the  supervision  and  advice  of  Prof.  Wm.  R.  Ware,  of 
Columbia  University.  The  contract  for  the  building  was 
let,  under  competition,  to  Cawsey  &  Carney  of  Seattle  en 
April  15,  1904;  and  the  building  was  completed  and 
turned  over  to  the  Library  Board  in  November,  1906. 
On  the  19th  of  December,  1906,  the  opening  exercises 
were  held,  consisting  of  the  following  addresses. 

In  the  absence  of  the  Hon.  J.  A.  Stratton,  Chairman 
of  the  Board  of  Library  Trustees,  the  introductory  ad- 
dress was  made  by  Mr,  Charles  E.  Shepard,  the  Vice- 
Chairman. 


Introductory  Address 


c 

HE  day  of  housing  the  Seattle  Pub- 
lic Library  in  a  fit  and  adequate 
building — so  long  looked  for  with 
deferred  hope,  but  untiring  efforts 
and  unabated  interest — has  come 
at  last.  Those  efforts  have  been 
a  part  of  the  life  of  the  community 
since  it  was  a  frontier  village — a 
pin-hole  in  a  vast  and  dense  forest; 
and  we  should  now  briefly  record 
them.  Woman,  always  forward  in  all  good  works,  took  the 
first  steps  for  a  free  public  library  here.  In  1 888  the 
* 'Ladies'  Library  Association  of  Seattle"  was  formed  by 
Mesdames  J.  C.  Haines,  A.  B.  Stewart,  L.  S.  J.  Hunt, 
W.  E.  Boone,  J.  H.  Sanderson,  Joseph  F.  McNaught,  G. 
Morris  Haller  and  George  H.  Heilbron;  and  its  main 
object  was  to  found  and  maintain  such  a  library.  The  city 
charter  did  not  then  authorize  any  expense  to  that  end;  and 
these  ladies  first  sought  private  contributions.  They  soon 
induced  Henry  L.  Yesler,  one  of  our  earliest  pioneers,  to 
convey  to  trustees  as  a  gift  for  a  city  library  the  triangular 
block  bounded  by  Yesler  Way,  Third  Avenue  and  JefFerson 
Street,  with  provisions  for  erecting  and  maintaining  thereon 
a  library  building  out  of  the  revenues  to  be  derived  from  the 
building.  Various  obstacles,  legal  and  personal,  have  de- 
layed the  intended  use  of  this  gift;  but  they  have  not  can- 
celed the  trust  and  the  Library  Board  is  confident  of  soon 
availing  itself  of  Mr.  Yesler's  public-spirited  act. 

In  1  890  the  city,  under  a  clause  in  the  State  Constitu- 
tion then  lately  adopted,  set  out  to  frame  its  own  charter; 
and  the  "Freeholders'  Charter,"  commonly  so-called,  was 
the  result.  The  ladies  of  the  Library  Association  were  quick 
to  seize  their  opportunity;  and  the  late  Junius  Rochester, 
impelled  by  their  and  his  own  zeal  in  the  cause  of  popular  in- 
telligence, acted  as  their  spokesman,  and  ardently  advocated 
a  provision  in  the  new  charter  for  a  free  public  library  at  the 
expense  of  the  taxpayers.  It  was  due  to  the  united  efforts  of 
these  ladies  and  Judge  Rochester,  amid  general  ignorance  or 


indifference  concerning  what  was  then  a  novel  idea  here,  that 
serious  opposition  was  overcome.  Since  that  day  it  has  never 
been  a  question  whether  the  City  of  Seattle  would  have  a 
public  library;  but  only  how  good  it  should  be,  and  how 
much  money  to  spend  on  it. 

The  Seattle  Public  Library  was  thus  founded  in  1  89 1 . 
In  those  early  days  it  was  a  small  and  struggling  affair  with 
a  meager  income,  dependent  on  the  favor  of  the  city  govern- 
ment of  the  day,  and  without  vested  rights  of  income,  or  a 
strong  public  opinion  to  aid  it.  But  the  unselfish  devotion 
of  its  early  friends  kept  it  alive.  Among  members  deserv- 
ing of  praise  it  may  seem  invidious  to  name  any,  but  without 
detraction  from  the  merits  of  others  it  is  only  just  to  mention 
Mrs.  J.  C.  Haines.  She  was  a  member  of  the  first  board  of 
library  trustees  under  the  freeholders'  charter,  and  for  years 
gave  more  of  time  and  zeal  to  the  affairs  of  the  library  than 
any  one  else.  For  a  decade  after  its  foundation  it  was  in  an 
invidious  sense  a  traveling  library — moving  from  one  build- 
ing to  another  according  to  the  exigencies  of  rents  and  availa- 
ble quarters.  On  January  1 ,  I  90 1 ,  the  library  was  occupy- 
ing the  so-called  Yesler  mansion,  a  large  dwelling  on  the 
block  bounded  by  Third  and  Fourth  Avenues  and  James 
and  Jefferson  Streets,  when  a  nocturnal  fire  destroyed  the 
building  and  most  of  its  contents.  This  happy  misfortune 
at  once  brought  to  an  acute  stage  the  question,  long  mooted, 
of  a  permanent  and  worthy  home  for  the  library.  Mr. 
Andrew  Carnegie  was  just  then  considering  the  propriety  of  a 
donation  to  the  city  for  that  purpose,  and  on  being  informed 
of  our  exigency  and  our  ability  to  maintain  suitably  a  much 
larger  building  than  he  had  contemplated,  he  offered  us 
$200,000  and  after  this  building  was  begun  added  $20,000 
for  its  equipment.  These,  we  understand,  are  much  larger 
sums  than  he  has  given  for  like  purposes  to  any  other  city  of 
equal  population;  and  are  greater  in  ratio  to  population 
than  any  of  his  other  library  gifts,  except  to  Dumferline,  the 
place  of  his  birth,  and  Pittsburgh,  the  place  of  his  success. 
This  gift  was  made  on  the  terms  usual  in  all  of  Mr.  Carne- 
gie's donations,  that  the  city  provide  the  site  and  an  adequate 
annual  maintenance  fund  in  perpetuity. 

Shortly  after  the  fire  the  Library  Board  rented  the  old 
University  Building  on  the  original  site  of  the  State  Uni- 
versity and  that  has  been  the  abode  of  the  library  until  today. 
After  the  consideration  of  several  proposed  sites,  the  entire 
block  on  which  this  building  stands  was  purchased  by  the 
city.  A  study  of  other  library  buildings  with  personal  in- 
spection of  nearly  every  prominent  one  in  this  country  was 


made,  and  an  architectural  competition  was  held — all  that 
we  might  attain,  as  near  as  may  be,  to  the  ideal  of  a  modern 
public  library  building.  Mr.  P.  J.  Weber,  of  Chicago, 
presented  the  winning  design  out  of  twenty-nine.  Its  em- 
bodiment you  see  here  tonight.  It  is  what  Mr.  Carnegie 
urged  us  to  build — a  fire-proof  building.  The  entire  struc- 
ture consists  of  stone,  steel,  brick,  concrete  and  glass  with 
wood  only  in  the  floor  surfaces  and  the  interior  finishing. 
And  the  Board  feels  that  it  is  only  just  to  say  that  it  is 
highly  satisfied  with  the  work  alike  of  the  architect,  the  con- 
tractors and  the  superintendent,  all  of  whom  have  contributed 
loyally  their  best  efforts  in  their  respective  spheres.  We  trust 
that  our  fellow  citizens  will  feel  that  this  building  adequately 
meets  the  library's  needs  and  represents  the  donor's  gener- 
osity. 

For  Mr.  Carnegie's  munificence  to  a  community  in 
which  he  has  no  personal  interest,  situated  in  the  extreme  part 
of  the  country,  the  people  of  Seattle  will  ever  feel  grateful. 
But  apart  from  any  local  feeling  of  gratitude  for  the  gift  or 
pride  in  the  result,  they  also  recognize  in  Mr.  Carnegie's 
numerous  library  foundations  both  a  broad-minded  philan- 
thropy and  an  enlightened  patriotism.  There  have  been 
liberal  givers  before  him;  many  men  of  wealth  in  many 
lands  have  given  of  their  abundance  to  build  churches,  en- 
dow colleges  and  hospitals,  and  found  homes  for  the  aged 
or  unfortunate — all  causes  in  which  the  givers  felt  a  special 
interest.  But  practically  all  such  donations  have  been  for  a 
sect  or  a  class.  Mr.  Carnegie  is  the  first  who  has  made  a 
whole  people  his  beneficiary — and  this  is  his  peculiar  glory. 
The  doors  of  every  Carnegie  library  are  open  to  all  who 
choose  to  enter  without  distinction  of  race,  or  creed,  or 
station,  or  condition  in  life.  It  is  most  appropriate,  then, 
that  two  tablets  have  been  prepared  and  are  to  be  mounted 
near  the  entrance,  bearing  the  donor's  name,  and  this  senti- 
ment, not  only  written  by  his  pen,  but  also  spoken  by  his 
many  gifts:  "The  surplus  wealth  of  the  few  shall  become 
in  the  best  sense  the  property  of  the  many,  because  adminis- 
tered for  the  common  good." 

The  free  public  library  is  the  university  of  the  people. 
It  is  peculiarly  an  American  institution.  As  America  is  the 
country  where  the  ideal  of  democracy — equality  of  right  and 
of  opportunity  in  public  and  private  life — has  been  most 
nearly  obtained;  so  it  is  the  land  where  that  equality  has 
been  earliest  and  best  and  most  broadly  extended  into  the 
educational  field  by  means  of  the  public  school  and  the  public 
library.     Real  democracy — government  by  the  people — can- 


not  endure,  save  by  an  intelligent  people.  And  if,  as  that 
political  Tory,  but  intellectual  democrat,  Samuel  Johnson, 
said,  the  best  education  is  that  which  one  gives  himself,  then 
the  free  public  library  in  extending  to  all  the  opportunity  of 
that  education  stands  beside  the  organs  of  formal  education 
as  one  of  the  mainstays  of  popular  intelligence  and  of  the 
perpetuity  of  the  republic.  These  two  are  like  the  two  great 
pillars  in  Solomon's  Temple — the  chief  ornament  and  support 
of  the  structure. 

The  praises  of  books  have  been  sung  from  the  days  of 
antiquity  until  now.  But  such  praises  have  come  from  those 
to  whom  books  were  their  daily  food — with  whom,  as  Cicero 
says,  they  spent  the  nights  and  traveled  when  they  went  from 
home.  The  literary,  scholastic  and  professional  classes  using 
books  as  both  tools  and  friends  got  a  false  perspective  of 
their  actual  use  and  value  among  the  masses.  The  great 
voiceless  public  for  ages  had  to  take  the  praises  on  trust  so 
far  as  practical  and  familiar  use  of  the  vast  and  rich  stores 
of  literature  went.  The  printing  press  struck  the  shackles 
of  the  copying  pen  from  literature;  but  the  free  public  library 
has  brought  her  out  from  the  narrow  closet  of  the  recluse  and 
the  lamplit  study  of  the  scholar,  set  her  in  the  open  light  of 
the  sun  and  made  her  free  as  air,  that  all  who  will  may  study 
and  enjoy  her  noble  countenance.  There  may  each  without 
cost  or  hindrance  find  what  best  befits  his  years  and  state 
and  needs — for  age,  solace;  for  manhood,  strength;  for 
youth,  inspiration.  There  may  you,  however  poor  you  be  in 
purse,  or  lowly  in  station,  or  laden  with  the  ills  and  toils  of 
life,  know  the  truth  of  those  fine  lines  of  Emily  Dickinson : 

*'//e  ate  and  dranf^  the  precious  rvords^ 
His  spirit  grerv  robust; 
He  knen)  no  more  that  he  was  poor^ 
Nor  that  his  frame  rvas  dust. 

He  danced  along  the  ding})  days. 

And  this  bequest  of  mngs 
Was  but  a  book — ^^^^  liberty 

A  loosened  spirit  brings.' 

So  this  library  of  our  Queen  City  stretches  out  its  wel- 
coming hands  and  bids  you  all  come  and  see 

'^Hoxp  frugal  is  the  chariot 
That  bears  the  human  soul.** 


Mr.   Shepard,    then   addressing   the  Hon. 
JVm.  Hickman  Moore,  the  Mayor  of 


the  Cit}),  said: 


And 


Mr.  Mi 


it  only 


remains 
ibrary  Board, 


now 
for  me,  in  benair  o 
and  in  discharge  of  our  official  duty,  to  de- 
liver to  you  the  keys  of  this  Public  Library 
Building,  the  gift  of  Mr.  Carnegie  to  the 
City  of  Seattle. 


His  Honor,  the  Ma^or,  in  response  said: 


Lf'Q^ 

d 

\m^m 

m 

'S  has  been  well  said,  the  perpetuity 
of  our  nation  and  institutions,  and 
the  welfare  and  happiness  of  our 
people,  depend  upon  the  intelli- 
gence of  our  citizenship.  The 
founders  of  the  nation,  and  those 
to  whom  was  intrusted  the  manage- 
of  the  affairs  of  the  nation,  real- 
izing that,  early  made  national 
provision  for  and  gave  encourage- 
ment to  public  education.  Not  only  did  the  founders  of  the 
nation  and  those  to  whom  was  intrusted  the  management 
of  its  affairs  realize  this  fact  and  make  provision  for  and 
encourage  public  education,  but  the  same  was  taken 
up  by  the  different  states  and  territories  of  the  Union  and 
the  cities  of  the  different  states  and  territories,  and  as  a 
result  of  this  belief  on  the  part  of  our  forefathers  and  those 
who  came  after  them,  down  to  the  men  of  the  present  day, 
there  has  been  established  our  system  of  education — the  free 
public  school  and  the  free  public  library — which  is  not 
equalled  by  any  system  in  any  other  country  in  the  world. 
The  education  that,  as  boys  and  girls,  we  receive  in  our 
public  schools  is  simply  the  foundation  upon  which  is  build- 
ed  the  education  that  fits  us  for  carrying  out  the  affairs  of 
life.  It  is  proper  and  it  is  desirable  that  those  of  us  who  have 
passed  beyond  our  school  days  (and  many  of  us  have 
probably  started  on  the  downhill  of  hfe,  so  to  speak),  should 
have  within  our  reach  the  opportunities  and  the  power  to 
continue  the  further  prosecution  of  what  we  gained  in  the 
public  schools.  That  can  best  be  accomplished  through  the 
free  public  library. 

It  is  not  only  proper  and  necessary  that  we  should  have 
these  opportunities,  but  it  is  proper  and  necessary  that  the 
younger,  including  the  children,  should  have  these  oppor- 
tunities. 

It  is  peculiarly  fortunate  for  us  in  Seattle  that  we  have 
this  library  built  at  the  present  time,  for  we  have  a  growing 
population,  and  among  our  people  are  many  young  men  and 
women  who  have  come  to  our  city  in  recent  days,  and  such 


will  continue  to  come  in  greater  numbers  to  live  in  our  midst, 
and  this  building  and  library  will  afford  a  haven  or  refuge 
to  those  people;  it  will  give  them  a  place  where  they  will 
not  be  subjected  to  the  temptations  of  the  outer  world  that 
they  otherwise  would  be  subjected  to,  until  they  become  ac- 
quainted in  our  community. 

The  city  of  Seattle  owes  an  everlasting  debt  of  gratitude 
to  Mr.  Carnegie,  by  whose  generosity  and  philanthropy  we 
were  enabled  to  acquire  and  now  dedicate  this  building 
forever  to  the  use  of  the  people   as   a   free  public   library. 


Mr.  Shepard  then  said: 

It  is  proper  at  this  point  to  read  a  letter  from  Mr.  Carnegie 
m  response  to  an  invitation — (applause) — sent  to  him  some 
time  ago  by  the  Board,  to  attend  the  opening  of  the  building. 
The  letter  was  sent  to  us  from  Skibo  Castle,  Scotland,  and 
reads  as  follows: 


Charles  W.  Smith,  Esq.,  Secretary, 
Public  Library  of  Seattle, 
Seattle,  Wash. 

Mr.  Carnegie  tenders  his  thanks  to  the  Library  Board 
for  the  kind  invitation  to  the  opening  of  the  library,  and 
regrets  that  his  engagements  make  it  impossible  for  him 
to  accept,  but  he  begs  to  send  his  best  wishes  for  the 
success  of  the  library  and  the  happiness  of  all  the  people 
of  Seattle. 

James  Bertram, 

Private  Secretary. 


A  library  implies  a  librarian,  and  the  city  of  Seattle  and 
Its  Library  Board  have  been  blessed  for  now  something  like 
ten  or  eleven  years  with  an  excellent  librarian  who  has  built 
up  a  fine  library,  and  gathered  together  to  conduct  it  a 
zealous,  devoted  and  loyal  staff. 

In  1895.  when  Mr.  Smith  was  installed  in  that  post,  the 
library  staff  numbered  five  besides  him  and  worked  half  time 
In  December.  1  906.  the  staff,  including  all  in  attendance  on 
the  branch  libraries,  numbers  forty-seven.     In  1 896  the  total 

'"""^To  ^L'^^  ^"^'^'^  ^^'  $7,300;  in  1906  its  total  income 
IS  $88,000.  In  1895.  or  1896,  the  total  number  of  books 
was  about  10,000  volumes;  today  it  is  85.000. 

Mr.  Charles  W.  Smith,  our  librarian,  will  next  address 
you  upon  a  subject  with  which  he  is  familiar:  "What  the 
Community  Owes  to  the  Public  Library." 


vv^hat  the  Community  Owes 
to  the  Puhlic  Liorary 


EATTLE  is  proud  of  her  fifty 
years  of  history.  The  Httle  notch 
in  the  forest  has  become  a  village, 
the  village  a  town,  the  town  a  city 
of  imperial  pretensions. 

But  what  constitutes  a  city? 
True,  an  empire  of  virgin  wealth 
has  been  conquered.  On  one  and 
another  day  of  pride,  lines  of  ships 
have  come,  breaking  a  path  across 
the  ocean,  to  ofFer  tribute;  railways  have  come,  leading  the 
steel-shod  caravans  of  trade  across  the  desert  to  the  port  of 
the  Fortunate  Seas ;  the  gates  of  a  land  of  gold  have  opened 
wide,  destined  to  swing  forever  outward;  people  from  all 
lands  have  hastened  hither,  until  it  has  seemed  to  our  partial 
eyes  that  the  star  of  empire  had  at  last  halted  in  its  course 
and  stood  still  above  us. 

But  students  of  the  English  language  and  English  his- 
tory tell  us  that  no  town  in  England  was  entitled  to  be  called 
a  ci/p  until  it  contained  a  cathedral.  During  the  centuries 
when  the  church  embodied  not  only  theology  but  all  learning, 
the  seats  of  the  episcopacy  with  their  superb  temples  dedi- 
cated to  God,  might  well  be  considered  the  real  centers  of  the 
nation's  power;  and,  as  you  know,  to  the  creation  of  these 
shrines,  successive  generations  of  builders  devoted  their  lives 
and  fortunes. 

May  we  not  say  in  like  manner  today  that  no  place — 
certainly  in  America — has  the  right  to  consider  itself  really 
a  city  until  it  contains  a  temple  like  this,  a  free  public 
library?  And,  dedicated  to  the  advancement  of  learning 
and  the  uplifting  of  humanity,  can  this  be  counted  other  than 
a  sacred  shrine? 

Consider,  too,  the  labors  and  devotion  of  its  founders. 
Scores  of  centuries,  all  the  wise  and  good  of  earth  have 
wrought  toward  its  upbuilding;  and  tonight,  from  their 
niches  in  these  halls,  their  mighty  spirits  forever  incarnate  in 


their  works  look  down  with  calm  eyes  upon  us.  The  sacred 
candlesticks  burning  in  such  a  temple  as  this,  flinging  out  their 
steady  rays  athwart  the  dubious  pathway  of  life,  were  kin- 
dled by  the  brightest  genius  of  earth;  and  here,  as  in  the 
ancient  Holy  of  Holies,  the  Shekinah  lire  of  truth,  the  eternal 
covenant  of  the  mind  of  God  with  man,  flames  forever. 

By  all  the  rules  of  definition,  then,  including  the  im- 
portant one  just  noted,  the  dweller  in  Seattle  may  now  claim 
to  be  "a  citizen  of  no  mean  city."  Moreover,  it  is  my  belief 
that  no  day  in  our  annals  is  destined  to  be  marked  by  a  more 
memorable  event  than  this  day  on  which  the  Public  Library 
hereby  comes  into  its  own  in  a  manner  to  inspire  the  respect 
and  receive  the  support  henceforth  which  it  deserves. 

Everything  is  improved  by  a  beautiful  setting.  The 
only  pathway  to  our  affections  is  through  the  gates  of  sense. 
Therefore,  our  city  is  to  be  most  heartily  congratulated  on 
the  possession  of  this  stately  home  for  an  institution  which  is 
the  designated  depository  and  trustee  of  civilization.  For, 
within  these  walls  you  have  the  journal  of  humanity,  the 
manuscript  of  creation.  Destroy  what  is  contained  here  and 
the  dial  of  time  would  be  turned  back  from  noon  to  midnight. 

Fulfilling  its  functions,  then,  as  the  depository  of  the 
newest  knowledge  of  the  day  and  the  hoarded  wisdom  of  the 
long  past,  the  library  holds  that  knowledge  and  wisdom  in 
trust  for  civilization.  This  trust,  we  may  now  know,  is  a  two- 
fold one, — its  first  object,  completion ;  its  second,  dissemina- 
tion. 

The  first  of  these  functions  is  the  old  and  familiar  one, 
as  old  as  civilization  itself.  Since  man  learned  the  art  of 
etching  his  thoughts  in  fixed  symbols,  to  be  better  understood 
by  his  fellows,  or  that  he  might  be  remembered  by  his  suc- 
cessors, these  treasuries  of  the  mind  have  existed.  The  most 
ancient  records  tell  of  them,  and  our  latest  discoveries  repeat 
their  story.  Graven  on  broad  tablets  of  clay,  they  are 
being  uncovered  from  beneath  the  shifting  sands  of  Babylon, 
already  fifty  centuries  old  when  the  prophet  of  the  Hebrews 
cried:  "Sit  thou  silent  and  get  thee  into  darkness,  O  daugh- 
ter of  the  Chaldeans:  for  thou  shalt  no  more  be  called  'The 
Lady  of  Kingdoms.'  "  Painted  upon  stone  and  carved  in 
granite,  the  remains  of  ancient  libraries  are  exhumed  from  the 
tombs  of  kings  that  built  the  pyramids,  in  the  days  when  the 
mystic  cry  of  Memnon  first  awoke  the  dawn  over  Egypt. 

Through  the  ages  since,  collections  of  writings  have 
preserved  this  function,  leading  along  the  stream  of  civiliza- 
tion, now  a  mere  trickle,  and  again  increasing  to  a  flood  and 
watering  the  whole  earth.     Of  all  man's  works  that  alone  to 


which  he  seems  able  to  impart  immortality  is  the  book  he  has 
written.  As  into  his  nostrils  was  breathed  the  breath  of  life, 
so  man  has  breathed  his  own  soul  into  the  book. 

The  true  book  is  a  labor  of  love.  It  is  the  best  that  is  in 
the  author,  brought  forth  through  the  agonizing  struggles  of 
his  genius  in  its  passion  for  utterance,  with  the  same  creative 
impulse  by  which  God  framed  the  worlds  and  animated  by 
the  same  godlike  instinct  of  love  and  the  same  necessity  for 
expression.  The  endless  toil  through  which  the  writer  strives 
to  perfect  his  work  is  simply  the  measure  of  his  love  of  the 
truth  and  of  his  desire  to  share  with  others  its  sublime  import. 
And  whatsoever  he  has  written  that  contains  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth,  partakes  of  truth's  own  eternity. 

The  second  function  of  the  library,  the  dissemination  of 
knowledge,  is  no  less  indispensable.  It  is  part  and  parcel  of 
the  wonderful  demand  for  free  education.  It  is  no  longer  the 
aim  of  the  library  to  be  only  a  conserver  of  materials;  it 
must  be  a  positive  force  working  with  enthusiastic  activity  to 
enlighten  and  uplift  the  race. 

The  public  library  of  today  is  in  a  beautiful  and  con- 
venient building,  equipped  with  reading  rooms,  lecture  and 
class  rooms,  art  gallery  and  assembly  rooms  for  the  meetings 
of  learned  societies.  It  is  sought  to  make  it  a  means  of  pub- 
lic comfort,  as  well  as  public  education,  and  so  to  attract 
people  as  yet  little  accustomed  to  the  ministry  of  books. 
There  is  no  longer  doubt  that  it  can  be  made  a  center  of  such 
influences  as  shall  make  its  attractions  linger  in  the  heart, 
drawing  more  strongly  than  almost  any  other  agency  of  our 
civilization. 

It  should  be  the  first  resort  for  one  out  of  employment. 
It  may  become,  without  any  loss  to  his  self-respect,  the  poor 
man's  club.  That  city  would  be  richly  repaid  in  peace  and 
good  order  which  should  succeed  in  making  these  places 
such  centers  of  sweetness  and  light  as  should  draw  always 
toward  them  its  poor  and  its  unemployed  for  counsel  and 
encouragement.  As  Mr.  Carnegie,  our  benefactor,  has  said, 
there  is  no  possible  danger  of  injuring  people  by  "pl^icing 
within  their  reach  the  means  of  knowledge,  because  these  only 
yield  their  fruits  to  such  as  cultivate  them  by  their  own  exer- 
tions." 

How  much  this  equalizing  of  opportunity  means  to  the 
state  may  be  seen  from  the  statistical  fact  that  nine-tenths  of 
the  children,  even  in  this  favored  land,  leave  school  without 
finishing  the  common  grades;  only  one  in  four  that  enter  the 
high  school  completes  the  course ;  and  barely  one  per  cent  is 
graduated  from  all  our  colleges  and  universities. 


1 1  s> 


'^E 


''^''i^.N'I.V 


Democracy  as  a  theory  of  government  has  at  last  come 
to  stay,  we  hope,  in  the  earth;  and  America  is  the  land 
where  its  problems  must  be  worked  out.  Only  God  knows 
what  problems  there  are  before  us.  But  this  we  do  know, 
that  the  thoughts  of  the  people  today  will  be  their  deeds  to- 
morrow. 

We  know  also  that  without  the  power  to  make  com- 
parison and  to  understand  cause  and  effect,  without  a  knowl- 
edge of  history,  masses  of  men  will  be  as  clay  in  the  hands  of 
political  bosses  and  plutocrats.  On  the  other  hand,  without 
the  broadening  of  outlook  and  the  humanizing  of  feeling  that 
come  from  acquaintance  with  the  best  literature,  the  poor  and 
unhappy  must  become  dangerous  whenever  they  become  con- 
scious of  brute  strength  and  determined  to  rely  upon  it. 

The  ship  of  state  must,  consequently,  be  defended 
against  perils  both  from  above  and  from  below,  so  to  speak, 
from  storm  and  from  shock,  from  tyranny  and  corruption 
on  the  one  hand  and  from  ignorance  and  prejudice  on  the 
other.  But,  behold,  in  our  library  a  chart  of  the  shores  of 
all  past  time,  showing  where  storms  are  brewed  and  where 
gentle  trade  winds  blow;  pointing  out  the  deep  broad 
channels  of  success,  the  shallows  of  human  weakness  and  the 
reefs  of  human  despair.  It  is  here,  then,  that  democracy 
must  seek  its  final  defense  against  repeating  over  and  again 
the  mistakes  whose  slow  correction  is  the  story  of  social 
progress. 

But  if  the  argument  for  the  support  of  the  free  library 
be  put  upon  the  broad  plane  of  the  safety  of  the  state,  there  is 
a  still  broader  plane  upon  which  to  place  it, — that  of  the 
welfare  and  happiness  of  the  individual,  of  whom,  by  whom 
and  for  whom,  the  state  exists. 

The  time  has  come  when  the  fullest  opportunity  of  the 
individual  to  I^noTv  is  conceded,  not  because  society  needs 
protection  from  his  ignorance,  but  because  it  is  his  right.  This 
"higher  law"  in  human  evolution  bids  each  individual  begin 
where  all  his  predecessors  left  off  and  urges  him  forward  by 
the  counsels  of  perfection.  Moreover,  the  full  realization  of 
our  ideals  demands  that  every  soul  shall  have  as  a  heritage 
the  moral  and  spiritual  riches  of  past  human  achievement. 

As  another  has  put  it,  the  end  of  education  is,  first,  to 
enable  a  man  to  earn  a  living,  and  then,  to  make  life  worth 
living.  Measured  bv  this  two-fold  object,  our  institution 
takes  highest  rank.  The  common  school  is  the  foundation  of 
education,  but  it  is  only  a  foundation.  Upon  it  the  high 
school,  college,  university  and  technical  school,  the  periodical 
press,   the  pulpit,   platform   and  stage,   all   go  to  build  the 


superstructure.  Crowning  all,  binding  all  together  as  one, 
composed  of  the  substance  and  partaking  the  strength  of  all, 
stands  the  keystone,  the  free  public  library. 

On  the  practical  side,  it  is  the  school,  free  alike  to 
rich  and  poor,  which  keeps  while  life  lasts,  and  whose  courses 
extend  from  kindergarten  to  university.  On  the  side  of  the 
higher  ideals  we  find  it  containing  an  inexhaustible  wealth 
of  humankindness,  of  inspiration  and  hope.  Given  the  desire 
for  truth  and  beauty  and  the  means  of  gratifying  it  with  art 
and  poetry  and  science  and  a  man  might 

*'Walk  in  glory  and  in  jo\). 
Following  the  plon>  along  the  mountain  side.** 

Above  all  else  the  work  of  the  library  begins  by  reach- 
ing out  and  touching  the  lives  of  the  young. 

If  you  teach  the  child  to  read  but  do  not  teach  him 
what  to  read  nor  help  him  to  form  a  good  taste  in  the  selec- 
tion of  his  reading,  you  have  furnished  him  with  edged  tools 
which  may  in  his  hands  become  weapons  turned  against  his 
neighbor  or  against  his  own  life.  The  dime  novel  libraries 
and  the  gaily  painted  vulgarity  of  the  Sunday  newspaper 
were  never  so  much  in  evidence  as  they  are  today  and  per- 
haps never  quite  so  noxious  in  their  effect  upon  the  heart 
and  imagination  of  the  future  citizen,  husband  and  father. 
The  weak  and  silly  story  paper,  the  vapid  and  impossible 
romance  pour  in  a  Hood  from  the  roaring  presses;  and  it  is 
from  these  that  our  girls  are  to  get  their  views  of  life. 

By  co-operative  work  with  the  public  schools,  making 
each  school  room  a  branch  library,  it  is  possible  to  reach 
every  child  that  is  born,  even  of  the  poorest  parents,  and  to 
put  into  his  hands  the  books  that,  with  the  revelation  of  new 
truth,  will  give  a  significance  to  life  hitherto  undreamed  of,  or 
with  the  glowing  touch  of  imagination  will  transfigure  his  poor 
surroundings,  and,  as  it  were,  create  the  world  for  him  anew. 
This  work  cannot  begin  too  early.  Luther  Burbank  says: 
'If  we  hope  for  any  improvement  of  the  human  race  we  must 
begin  with  the  child,  as  the  child  responds  more  readily  to 
environment  than  any  other  creature  in  existence." 

It  is  the  mission  of  the  public  library  to  bring  to  these 
young  lives  the  ripened  fruit  of  the  love  and  tenderness  which 
humanity  has  in  all  ages  borne  towards  childhood;  to  fill 
these  ingenuous  hearts  with  such  visions  of  truth  and  beauty 
that  there  shall  be  no  room  left  for  whatsoever  defileth  or 
maketh  a  lie.  Our  children  have  tasted  of  the  tree  of  knowl- 
edge;   it  lies  in  our  power  to  enable  them  to  grasp  the  fruit 


of  life;     and  one  generation   of   fully   redeemed  childhood 
would  show  us  a  redeemed  world. 

The  library  deserves  our  sympathy  then  and  our  sup- 
port because  it  may  be  of  such  benefit  to  those  who  need  it 
most — the  teacher  of  the  untaught,  the  refuge  of  the  friend- 
less, a  dispenser  of  the  "medicine  of  the  soul"  to  those  who 
have  found  no  physician  for  their  complaints. 

To  such  the  library  must  come  with  its  supreme  mission 
of  equalizing  opportunity.  It  must  try  to  seek  them  out  and 
bring  them  to  itself,  or  go  where  they  are  if  need  be.  It  may 
not,  although  sometimes  even  our  churches  do  so,  withdraw  it- 
self to  more  fashionable  and  exclusive  locations.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  must  establish  branches  wherever  needed,  so  that  the 
poor  can  use  its  treasures  without  paying  an  impossible  tax  in 
time  and  car  rare.  It  must  win  the  people  to  an  apprecia- 
tion of  its  riches  and  their  great  privilege. 

I  have  thus  briefly  supported  the  claims  of  this  institution 
upon  the  citizens  and  taxpayers  of  the  city.  I  have  attempted 
to  show  that  it  is  a  public  necessity,  its  mission  the  greatest 
of  all  altruisms,  and  therefore  its  existence  interwoven  with 
your  destiny.  We  know  that  knowledge  is  power,  faith  and 
love  omnipotent  and  beauty  a  joy  forever ;  and  we  have  here 
stored  up  all  these  dynamics  of  the  universe. 

Think  of  the  appeal  to  your  heart  and  my  heart  of 
these  wonderful  things  we  call  books!  Without  them,  we 
should  be  poor,  starved,  shipwrecked  souls  in  the  limitless 
waste  of  the  years.  But  we  have  not  been  left  so  desolate. 
Tennyson  sings: 

**Thou  Tvilt  not  leave  us  in  the  dust; 
Thou  madest  man,  he  k^oivs  not  ip/ip; 
He  thinks  he  was  not  horn  to  die; 
And  Thou  hast  made  him.  Thou  art  just.** 

And  what  a  miracle  is  here,  that  a  wandering  Phoeni- 
cian should  invent  certain  cabalistic  signs,  that  a  German 
tinker  should  one  day  carve  them  on  blocks  of  wood,  and 
now  you  and  I  may  stand  here  and  listen  to  the  immortal 
voices  of  Isaiah  and  Homer  and  Dante  and  Shakespeare! 
Are  we  not  verily  become  as  gods? 

Familiarity  with  the  printed  page  and  the  leathern  coat 
must  not  blind  our  eyes  to  our  supreme  privilege.  This  magic 
palace  of  the  mind  in  which  we  are  gathered  is  become  a 
whispering  gallery  of  the  ages.  This  air,  saturated  with  the 
distilled  wisdom  of  time,  is  throbbing  with  the  tongues  of 
all  nations.  Who  that  has  a  listening  ear  can  fail  to  be 
amazed  at  the  delights  here  in  store  ? 


And  so,  I  urge  that  each  generation,  coming  open-eyed 
and  empty-handed  upon  Hfe's  stage,  has  a  right,  an  inherent, 
inahenable  right,  to  these  moral  and  spiritual  riches.  Every 
human  soul  is  brought  into  the  world  by  no  will  of  his  own, 
heir  of  necessity  to  the  ignorance  and  weakness  of  his  prede- 
cessors. Coming  hither,  he  knows  not  whence,  nor  why; 
proceeding,  he  knows  not  whither;  but  with  his  isolation, 
his  atomic  loneliness  amid  the  impassable  gulfs  of  human 
identity  forever  haunting  him,  his  eyes  peering  anxiously 
through  the  mist  of  individual  experience,  and  his  imagina- 
tion beating  its  wings  against  the  prison  bars  of  human  intelli- 
gence— every  soul,  I  say,  is  entitled  to  have  as  his  heritage 
and  possession  the  record  of  all  the  experience  of  his  prede- 
cessors, all  the  achievements  of  their  strength,  all  the  hopes 
and  aspirations  that  animated  them,  made  as  freely  his  as  the 
air  and  the  sunshine.  And  here,  in  this  eternal  banquet  hall 
of  the  spirit,  the  feast  of  wisdom  is  always  spread;  its  life- 
giving  bread  is  here  always  broken,  its  cups  of  immortality  are 
forever  brimming. 


Mr.  Shepard  then  said : 

We  were  fortunate  to  secure  as  the 
principal  speaker  on  this  occasion  Dr.  Ben- 
jamin Ide  Wheeler,  who  will  address  you 
on  the  subject  of  "The  Things  Worth 
While  for  a  People." 


The  Things  vvorth  vvhile 
for  a  People 

E  ARE  met  to  dedicate  to  the  high- 
est uses  of  society  a  pubHc  building 
made  possible  through  the  wise  be- 
stowal of  private  wealth.  In  these 
days  when  the  development  of 
transportation  through  the  fettering 
of  steam  and  electricity  by  steel  has 
rapidly  created  enormous  stores  of 
wealth  by  intense  re-grouping  of 
the  world's  commodities,  everyone 
who  looks  with  true  eyes  is  forced  to  observe  how  helpless 
are  the  temporary  recipients  of  this  wealth  to  use  what  they 
are  so  skilled  to  collect.  It  appears  that  men  now  accum- 
ulate money  without  the  slightest  plan  for  its  use  except  as  a 
means  of  accumulating  more.  "Making  money"  as  an  end 
in  itself  is  surely  enough  a  modern  and  even  a  recently  mod- 
ern phenomenon.  The  original  idea  in  human  society  of  the 
assembling  of  wealth  and  of  the  protection  by  society  of  its 
possession  by  individuals  was  directly  connected  with  the 
establishment  and  security  of  the  home  and  the  family.  The 
very  notion  of  private  wealth  is  something  developed  amongst 
human  kind  along  with  the  growing  conception  of  responsi- 
bility for  the  well-being  of  offspring;  and  the  continuance  of 
it  in  the  possession  of  the  family  through  inheritance,  was 
associated  with  certain  duties  of  respect  on  the  part  of  off- 
spring toward  the  graves  and  memories  of  ancestors.  The 
successive  generations  passed  on  through  their  successive  pos- 
session of  the  family  estate  as  battalions  march  through  a 
gateway,  and  it  was  the  estate  which  assured  their  continu- 
ance in  a  life-chain.  Personal  ownership  and  inheritances 
were  devices  naively  created  by  primitive  society  for  a  spe- 
cial purpose.  Now  this  connection  with  a  purpose  has  almost 
passed  away,  as  the  amount  which  can  be  amassed  has 
passed  out  of  any  reasonable  relation  with  the  possibilities 
of  personal  use.  The  amassing  proceeds  without  any  for- 
mulated reference  to  any  known  or  conceivable  use.  Men 
are  supposed  to  know  that  they  will  die;    they  are  supposed 


to  know  that  Charon's  boat  takes  no  freight.  They  might, 
with  the  common  lessons  of  experience  open  about  them,  be 
also  supposed  to  know  that  inherited  wealth  beyond  the 
needs  of  plain  security  is  a  harm  rather  than  a  help  to  chil- 
dren. But  still  they  go  on  leaving  their  crude  hoards  of 
purposeless  riches  on  the  river  bank  to  serve  for  the  tempta- 
tion of  lawyers  and  the  ruination  of  their  children,  without 
having  planned  either  of  the  two  things.  It  is  this  absence 
of  rational  connection  between  accumulation  and  use  which 
constitutes  the  salient  mark  of  this  modern  folly  of  dying 
hopelessly  and  aimlessly  rich. 

The  folly's  only  excuse  might  perhaps  be  that  in  the 
sudden  transition  to  the  greater  riches  education  in  the  proper 
use  has  not  kept  pace  with  the  mechanism  of  gain.  In  the 
hurry  of  opportunity  men  have  lost  perspective  in  the  things 
worth  while. 

The  greatness  of  Andrew  Carnegie  is  found  neither 
in  his  wealth,  nor  in  his  power  of  acquisition,  which  I  de- 
cline to  believe  represents  necessarily  in  itself  any  particularly 
marked  talent  radically  distinguishing  him  from  other  men, 
but  it  is  really  great  to  have  risen  so  high  above  the  habit 
of  his  day  as  he  has  done, — to  have  kept  clear  measure  of 
relative  values  in  the  midst  of  abnormal  circumstances,  to 
have  prevented  his  enormous  moneys  from  lapsing  into  the 
crude  bullion  of  meaningless  wealth  and  really  losing  all 
value  in  separation  from  use.  As  surely  as  he  that  loseth 
his  life  shall  find  it,  so  surely  has  that  man  lost  his  wealth 
who  cannot  use  it. 

The  fortunes  of  the  day  have  in  their  volume  passed 
entirely  beyond  any  remotely  possible  relation  to  personal  or 
family  needs.  One's  capacity  for  digesting  and  assimilat- 
ing food  is  not  significantly  increased  by  added  millions; 
neither  are  the  possibilities  of  apparel  in  any  wise  sufficient 
to  keep  pace,  not  even  if  the  women  of  the  household  eschew 
the  products  of  the  loom  and  hide  the  lack  with  precious 
pearls.  Accumulations  of  motor  cars  and  yachts  and  resi- 
dences alternating  with  the  months  cannot  penetrate  the 
shell  of  swelling  incomes,  but  they  Ccin  burden  and  smother 
the  life  with  material  mass  and  consume  its  strength  with 
the  fuss  of  machinery.  Perspective  in  the  things  worth 
while  has  therefore  for  these  people  very  little  reference 
to  the  things  of  private  and  personal  use;  it  concerns  their 
attitude  toward  public  duty.  Do  they  recognize  an  obli- 
gation toward  society  at  large?  Will  they  accept  within 
the  purview  of  their  duty  consideration  of  the  things  that  are 
worth  while  for  a  people?     If  they  are  not  to  do  this,  it  is 


inevitable  that  their  bhnd  inaction  can  only  contribute  mo- 
mentum to  the  demand  for  enlargement  of  the  functions  of  the 
state  by  simply  lending  excuse  for  the  state  to  occupy  a  waste 
and  uncultivated  area  of  opportunity.  The  public  sentiment 
of  a  progressive  people  abhors  a  vacuum  as  much  as  nature 
does. 

Among  the  things  that  are  worth  while  for  a  people, 
we  Americans  are  likely  with  reason  to  put  in  first  rank  that 
freedom  of  individual  initiative  by  the  exercise  of  which  we 
have  gained  our  chief  distinction  as  a  people.  The  blood  of 
the  seafarers  from  the  various  coasts  of  the  fickle  North  Sea 
is  in  our  veins  and  we  are  willing  to  accept  the  loss  and  gain 
of  risks  so  long  as  we  are  left  the  freedom  to  choose  our  time 
and  course  for  ourselves.  The  gains  of  success  are  high, 
but  the  wrecks  are  pitiful;  still  we  love  the  intelligent  and 
self-determined  risk.  Others  have  offered  us  systems  of 
greater  prudence  and  economy,  but  we  have  preferred  to 
found  our  life  and  government  upon  freedom,  with  all  its 
apparent  waste,  and  through  our  self-dependent  risks  have 
grown  strong  and  great.  Our  schem.e  of  government  is 
simply  the  die  struck  from  the  matrix  of  our  life.  We  are 
governed  chiefly  by  the  law  that  has  come  to  be  TDithin  us, 
and  the  external  law  we  limit  to  the  minimum  of  what  will 
conserve  the  rights  of  the  whole  and  save  clash.  It  is  a 
scheme  that  requires  for  its  successful  working  considerable 
patience,  some  understanding  of  what  it  means  to  be  a  "good 
loser,"  and  large  sympathy  for  the  other  fellow's  point  of 
view;  a  reasonable  sense  of  humor,  too,  will  not  be  found 
amiss. 

This  is  our  system,  and  we  shall  not  abandon  it  very 
soon;  certainly  not  until  our  blood  of  enterprise  has  cooled 
through  many  generations,  and  we  have  lost  the  freshness 
of  our  hope  and  most  of  our  resilience.  Without,  however, 
impairing  the  essential  validity  of  our  system,  we  may  and 
doubtless  shall,  as  opportunity  offers  or  need  compels,  lend 
the  form  of  the  state  to  functions  that  have  already  ripened 
into  public  control  or  possession  through  natural  absorption 
into  purely  public  use  and  service.  This  is  not  Socialism, 
any  more  than  it  would  be  Socialism  for  a  postoffice  to 
handle  packages  in  addition  to  letters. 

From  all  we  know  of  the  experience  of  mankind  it  is 
not  worth  while  for  people,  even  if  it  were  possible,  that 
wealth  should  be  equally  distributed.  It  is  worth  while, 
however,  that  the  creation  of  wealth  among  a  people  should 
have  its  effect  in  raising  the  general  standard  of  comfort  as 
a  basis  upon  which  all  may  have  the  opportunity  of  rising 


into  better  enjoyment  of  the  sunlight  and  fulfillment  of  the 
possibilities  of  life.  We  ought  to  rejoice  and  not  begrudge 
if  the  laborer  out  of  the  product  of  industry  can  receive 
larger  return  as  a  result  of  the  economies  due  to  the  wider 
scale  of  corporate  enterprises;  likewise,  if  as  his  share  in 
the  savings  occasioned  by  the  invention  of  machinery,  his 
toil  can  be  limited  to  one-third  of  the  hours  he  has  to  live  in 
his  day.  This  means  larger  living  for  all  the  sons  of  men, 
and  it  means  a  better  world  to  live  in  for  us  all. 

The  emergence  of  the  large  corporation  into  the  broad- 
er day  of  public  notice  and  its  inevitable  subordination  to 
public  responsibility  are  contributing  directly  to  the  better- 
ment of  the  condition  of  those  who  are  employed.  Conti- 
nuity of  employment,  improved  rates  of  remuneration,  care 
for  the  sick,  provision  of  clubs  and  reading  rooms,  liberation 
from  arbitrary  treatment,  pensioning  after  long  service,  are 
all  features  of  a  progressive  betterment  that  has  its  source 
in  a  conscious  responsibility  to  the  tribunal  of  publicity,  re- 
inforced by  an  intelligent  recognition  that  these  things  pay, 
that  they  are  right,  that  with  the  resources  available  to  great 
combinations  they  Ccin  be  done. 

It  is  worth  while  for  a  community  to  add  distributed 
intelligence  to  distributed  comfort.  As  yet  the  resources  of 
the  state  are  insufficient  to  do  one-fifth  of  what  ought  to  be 
done  for  education  and  I  am  confident  will  be  done  by  the 
American  state  a  century  hence.  The  equipment  of  schools, 
universities  and  libraries  is  rapidly  improving,  but  everywhere 
lags  far  behind  the  demand.  The  teaching  profession  is  the 
poorest  remunerated  by  far  of  all  the  professions,  and  though 
we  theoretically  preach  that  education  chiefly  comes  by  the 
inspiration  of  personality  we  practically  content  ourselves 
with  teachers  who  are  such  either  because  they  have  resisted 
the  blandishments  of  gain  or  because  they  lack  the  virility 
and  initiative  to  push  into  business  or  the  more  riskful  pro- 
fessions. Teaching  ought  to  have  the  best,  but  when  we  are 
employing  high  school  principals  for  twelve  to  fourteen  hun- 
dred dollars  a  year  we  plainly  deceive  ourselves  if  we  think 
we  are  getting  the  best.  We  are  employing  women  inordi- 
nately as  teachers,  and  are  doing  thereby  an  inexcusable 
and  irreparable  wrong  to  our  boys,  who  after  the  age  of 
twelve  ought  to  be  chiefly  under  the  tutelage  of  men,  and 
we  are  doing  it  either  because  we  are  not  honest  to  what 
we  know  or  are  penurious  in  a  matter  of  highest  importance 
to  the  well-being  of  the  community.  Here  is  a  place  where 
private  wealth  devoting  itself  to  public  service  can  come  to 
the  aid  of  the  temporarily  embarrassed  state.     Why  has  no 


one  of  our  men  of  wealth  seen  his  opportunity  in  building  and 
equipping  school-houses,  or  providing  funds  for  teachers' 
salaries  or  pensions?  Men  are  beginning  to  give  to  the 
universities,  and  in  the  coming  decades  will  give  in  far 
richer  measure.  But  why  not  give  to  the  schools?  Is  it 
because  they  are  owned  by  the  state,  and  the  state  should 
care  for  its  own?  What  better  guarantee  of  perpetual  use 
for  the  public  good  can  be  afforded  than  the  plain  open  trus- 
teeship of  the  public  itself?  Is  any  money  more  economi- 
cally and  honestly  expended  in  our  midst  than  school 
money?  This  alone  is  sufficient  answer  to  the  fear  of  poli- 
tics. When  interest  is  once  awake,  politics  is  simply  public 
action, — it  is  the  public.  It  is  seedy  only  when  interest  is 
slack  or  understanding  is  confused  by  complication  and  ob- 
scurement  of  issues.  There  is  nothing  the  American  public 
will  rebuke  more  soundly  than  the  intrusion  of  graft  and 
false  political  motives  into  the  affairs  of  the  schools.  The 
way  to  cleanse  politics  is  to  give  politics  something  serious  to 
do  and  something  the  people  are  seriously  interested  in.  Peo- 
ple are  seriously  interested  in  the  schools  and  they  always 
will  be.  They  come  too  near  home  for  anything  else.  If 
we  entrust  our  children  to  the  schools,  rich  men  can  afford 
to  trust  their  money  to  them. 

The  diffusion  of  healthful  knowledge  is  one  of  the  chief 
safeguards  of  our  institutions, — not  to  the  end  that  one  may 
read  his  ballot,  or  the  constitution,  or  the  morning  paper, 
but  that  he  may  be  saved  from  being  fooled  so  often,  and 
from  being  a  slave  all  the  time.  The  worst  slavery  is  fash- 
ioned in  the  joint  bondage  of  ignorance,  superstition,  pre- 
judice, and  the  rule  of  thumb.  All  these  are  creatures  of 
isolation  and  the  partial  vision.  Reading  is  a  peculiar  de- 
vice,— peculiar  in  that  it  happens  to  combine  in  its  effect 
two  forms  of  liberation  from  the  partial  and  the  local. 
First:  it  allows  one  to  commune  with  others  who  share  the 
world  with  him  at  a  given  time  but  are  removed  in  space. 
Second:  it  allows  one  to  hold  communion  with  men  removed 
in  time.  The  voice  of  man  reaches  for  but  a  few  yards  of 
space  and  dies  upon  the  winds  in  a  moment  of  time.  But 
the  speech  of  man  hardened  into  record  triumphs  over  space 
to  melt  the  various  prejudices  of  place  into  the  larger  human- 
ity of  the  larger  society  of  man,  and  triumphs  over  time  to 
show  us  the  genealogy  of  superstition  and  prejudice  and 
teach  us  how  little  we  have  had  to  do  in  framing  even  our 
own  prejudices. 

The  reading  of  good  books  is  surely  a  help  toward 
the   larger   life.      But   how    about   promiscuous    reading   of 


books  just  as  they  come,  say  in  a  public  library,  and  of 
magazines  just  as  they  come  in  the  news  stalls?  I  am  in- 
clined to  think  even  this  better  than  what  it  displaces.  Some 
grieve  at  the  large  proportion  of  fiction  disbursed  by  the 
libraries;  perhaps  it  is  excessive,  but  w^e  must  know  that 
very  many  people  absorb  their  idealism  only  in  this  form. 
We  have  to  have  rest  from  facts,  the  prosaic  work-a-day  facts 
of  our  own  uninteresting  lives;  we  must  dream  dreams; 
we  must  live  some  other  one's  life,  and  take  a  vacation  out- 
side our  own  skins.  This  is  a  deep  and  universal  human 
craving.  It  existed  long  before  books  and  libraries.  The 
legend,  the  folk-tale,  the  myth,  the  bard,  the  drama,  the 
celebration  of  the  mystery  and  the  Dionysiac  orgy  all  repre- 
sent devices  framed  to  satisfy  this  craving.  The  human 
animal  insists  upon  living  other  lives,  upon  cantilevering  out 
into  space  with  constructions  of  the  imagination.  In  fact 
imagination  is  the  soul's  assertion  of  its  right  to  create,  of 
its  right  to  rule  nature  and  shape  and  interpret  it;  it  seems 
to  be  the  seat  of  all  progress  in  arts,  the  sciences  and  morals. 
It  is  that  whereby  man  has  come  to  rule  his  world;  it  is 
that  whereby  he  has  prepared  himself  a  heaven. 

The  public  library  is  safely  and  surely  a  blessing  to 
the  community.  It  drives  out  the  dram-shops  faster  than 
New  Year's  resolutions.  It  is  the  friend  of  good  manners, 
clean  homes,  and  sweet  reasonableness.  As  a  foe  of  ignor- 
ance it  helps  to  make  freemen.  Andrew  Carnegie  has 
chosen  well.  He  has  applied  his  benefactions  at  a  point 
where  perhaps  more  certainly  than  from  any  other  he  could 
have  chosen  they  reach  directly  to  the  substantial  better- 
ment of  human  life  and  the   fulfillment  of  democracy. 

The  genius  of  JefFerson's  conception  of  democracy  lay 
in  the  idea  of  distributed  government — though  he  never,  I 
believe,  used  the  phrase, — and  for  the  fair  realization  of 
such  government  is  essential  not  only  a  reasonable  degree 
of  distributed  well-being  and  of  distributed  intelligence,  but 
above  all  of  distributed  responsibility.  Every  citizen  must 
know  that  he  is  a  participating  member  of  the  state,  not  only 
for  the  receiving  of  benefits,  but  for  the  rendering  of  service. 
We  cannot  make  this  system  of  free  government  work  with- 
out large  supplies  of  devotion,  disinterestedness,  patriotism. 
When  we  get  to  a  point  where  nobody  is  doing  anything 
for  the  state  except  as  he  is  paid  for  it  or  expects  to  get 
something  out  of  it,  either  emolument  or  office,  honor  or 
graft,  then  we  are  pretty  near  the  end — at  least  near  the 
end  of  the  institutions  our  fathers  established.  We  want 
more  men  at  the  primaries  and  on  political  committees  who 


are  certain  with  their  own  consciences  that  they  want  no 
office, — who  have  no  axe  to  grind  for  themselves  or  any 
interest.  A  man  who  has  his  eye  set  on  an  office,  no  matter 
if  it  be  through  a  telescope,  is  likely  to  be  of  impaired  use- 
fulness for  the  public  service.  And  yet  I  wish  men  of  first- 
rate  talent  and  integrity  were  more  willing  to  accept  public 
office.  As  it  is  now  the  state,  which  ought  to  command 
the  absolutely  best,  is  often  getting  only  third-rate  service, — 
in  some  cases  third  below  zero.  The  large  corporations, 
concerning  which  we  entertain  so  manifold  solicitudes,  usu- 
ally command  immeasurably  better  administrative  and  legal 
talent  than  does  the  state.  In  a  suit  between  a  corporation 
and  the  state  the  corporation  is  likely  to  be  represented  by  an 
attorney  earning  fifty  to  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  a 
year,  while  the  public  has  secured  itself  the  faltering  services 
of  some  youngster  who  sought  the  office  because  he  could 
not  earn  a  living  otherwise.  Our  towns  do  not  send  their 
ablest  business  men  to  the  legislature.  I  hear  it  frequently 
said  in  excuse  that  such  men  will  not  give  the  time  from  their 
business.  That  is  not  the  reason.  They  will  not  subject 
themselves  to  the  pledges  that  are  demanded  for  the  nomina- 
tion, to  the  intrigues  that  are  necessary  for  the  election,  to 
the  criticism  and  thanklessness  of  the  public  or  the  hounding 
of  the  interests  when  they  do  their  independent  duty.  The 
remedy  lies  with  you  and  me  in  the  exercise  of  our  plain 
civic  duty.  We  need  more  public-mindedness  in  the  rank 
and  file.  We  have  been  indifferent.  We  have  been  willing, 
if  we  only  were  let  alone,  to  let  things  go,  to  leave  them 
to  those  who  have  axes  to  grind,  and  the  result  has  been 
that  the  axe-grinders  have  elevated  the  boss  and  the  machine 
into  a  formal  trusteeship  or  agency  which  handles  the  offices 
on  a  percentage  of  money  or  favor.  This  would  not  be 
intolerable  if  the  agency  merely  furnished  us  public  servants 
as  an  Intelligence  Office  furnishes  household  servants.  The 
Intelligence  Office  does  not  follow  the  servant  over  into  our 
kitchens  and  dictate  recipes  for  puddings,  but  it  is  a  weird 
feature  of  modern  American  politics  that  when  a  man  has 
been  elected  to  a  public  office,  he  begins  first  to  inquire  what 
obligations  he  is  under  to  the  powers  that  nominated  him, 
and  to  ask  what  they  want  him  to  do.  This  is  reckoned  in 
the  politicians'  code  as  the  necessary  comity  and  ethics  of 
the  situation.  The  people  that  elected  him  come  in  for  later 
consideration,  if  at  all.  This  is  not  the  fault  of  the  candi- 
date; it  is  our  own  fault.  In  the  eager  pursuit  of  our  private 
aims  we  have  neglected  our  individual  public  responsibilities, 
and  the  reproof  is  automatic.     The  stream  of  public  obliga- 


tion  in  the  spirit  of  our  government  will  not  rise  higher  than 
its  source  in  the  sense  of  public  responsibility  distributed 
throughout  the  masses  of  our  citizenship. 

We  are  engaged  today  in  transferring  a  body  of  pri- 
vate substance  rescued  from  the  temporality  of  human,  mor- 
tal hands,  and  dedicating  it  to  the  sacred  perpetuity  of  pub- 
lic use,  but  the  large  value  of  the  day  will  have  been  lost 
unless  we  here  cind  now  shall  dedicate  ourselves  with  new 
vows  to  civic  duty  and  public  zeal.  For  we  are  not  our 
own. 


Mr.  Shepard  said  in  conclusion : 

I  have  now  to  make  the  formal  announcement  that  this 
building  will  be  open,  after  tonight,  on  the  accustomed  days 
and  during  the  usual  hours.  It  is  your  municipal  book 
home;  resort  to  it,  use  it;  and,  in  the  words  of  one  of  the 
best  books  ever  written,  "read,  mark,  learn  and  inwardly 
digest"  its  contents — or  such  of  them  as  are  worth  while; 
for  a  wise  choice  is  the  part  of  a  good  reader. 

These  dedicatory  exercises  will  now  be  concluded  by  a 
prayer  to  be  offered  by  the  Right  Rev.  Frederick  W.  Keator, 
Bishop  of  the  Episcopal  District  of  Olympia: 
Bishop  Keator:     Let  us  pray. 

Almighty  God;  fountain  of  all  wisdom  and  truth,  source 
of  all  power  and  might,  giver  of  every  good  gift;  we  laud 
and  magnify  Thy  glorious  name;  we  give  Thee  humble  and 
hearty  thanks  for  all  the  blessings  we  enjoy ;  all  our  progress, 
both  material  and  spiritual,  we  do  ascribe  unto  Thee  who  art 
ever  opening  before  men  the  treasure  of  truth.  Especially 
at  this  time  we  thank  Thee  for  the  blessings  of  education, 
of  learning,  and  of  culture,  and  for  all  the  means  for  their 
increase  among  us — our  churches,  our  schools  and  institu- 
tions of  learning,  our  libraries  and  means  of  every  sort. 

Now,  our  God,  we  do  invoke  Thy  blessing  upon  us  who 
are  met  together  to  celebrate  the  opening  of  this  public 
library.  Thou  hast  put  it  into  the  minds  and  the  hearts  of 
men  to  give  of  their  means  and  of  their  labors  for  its  upbuild- 
ing in  this  community.  We  pray  Thee  that  Thy  favor  may 
continue  to  abide  with  it,  and  as  Thou  hast  given  the  mind 
to  build  it,  give  also  the  will  to  use  it,  that  it  may  become  a 
power  for  good  in  our  civic  and  individual  life  and  for  our 
growth  in  the  knowledge  of  Thy  truth. 

We  ask  it  all  in  the  name  of  Him  who  has  taught  us  to 
pray: 

*'Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  Thy  name. 
Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in 
heaven.  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread  and  forgive  us 
our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive  those  that  trespass  against  us. 
Lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil.  For 
Thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power  and  the  glory,  for  ever 
and  ever.  Amen.** 


UNIVERSITY 

OF  . 


